the great stairs of china

Vietnam was by far the best traveling experience I have had. The first day a few of us found a taxi driver to take us to the Cu Chi tunnels where the soldiers hid during the war. It was unbelievably surreal walking on the paths and exploring the tunnels because all I could imagine was that it was once all real. It was just some fun adventure for us but in retrospect we had the opportunity to see our history books come alive. I pictured the soldiers in the underground kitchen cooking while American troops walked above them, unable to detect their location. Driving through the countryside was also amazing because we were outside of Ho Chi Minh City and we got to see the way people really live there. I couldn't believe that in a place where people were once so wronged by Americans, no one had any resentment towards us. Instead they were eager to try and communicate with us and help us get where we were going. Someone said to us, well thank God there's no oil in Vietnam...then we would really have problems. On the second day I went to the Mekong Delta and got to ride on the boats and visit a fishing village. We spent the last three days at Mui Ne beach on the coast which is about three hours from HCMC. We met up with Steph (my roommate from school) and it was so much fun. Our hotel was called full moon beach resort and it was perfect. The rooms were all so beautiful and they surrounded a long pool in the middle. I felt like we were living in a tropical cottage. The deck where we ate breakfast overlooked the beach and we got to sit around and watch the kite surfers. The bus ride back to the ship on the last day was hectic to say the least but we made it. I miss Steph so much already and I can't wait to see her when she gets home from Australia.
After three days on the ship, we arrived in Hong Kong. I only spent one day there because the next morning I got on a plane to fly to Beijing. The great wall was crazy. It really should be called the great staircase of China. Somehow we all seemed to miss the fact that the great wall is really miles of steps. After almost two hours of step climbing, we reached the top. I definitely understand now why it's one of the seven wonders of the world. We also went to a really crazy Chinese acrobat show. The lights reminded me of a bisco show and on top of that, I got the watch people perform some of the most ridiculous stunts ever. I was convinced that someone was going to fly off the stage (especially the little boys who were Kyle's age...I was really worried about them). Now we have two days until Japan and then it's the long 14 day stretch until we arrive in San Diego. I can't believe it's almost over. Time really does fly when you're having the time of your life. At the same time though, I'm really excited to come home. I along with a many others on the ship have recently come to the conclusion that we love America and we love our lives there. I am SO lucky to be me.

my very first bad week at sea

I’ll start with the bad news first since the good news is totally worth waiting for. So about five days ago my computer crashed. I took it to the tech guys and they said there was nothing they could do. Then I found a kid on the ship who thought that he could at least retrieve some of my files off of the hard drive. He couldn’t do anything so then another kid looked at it…same story. Basically, I no longer have a computer and I won’t have one again until I get home and buy myself a Macbook (I will never get a PC ever again…EVER). What this means for all of you is that my communication is going to be extremely limited. There are about 25 computers on the ship for public use and they are all taken 95% of the time. The other problem with the computer situation is that I also no longer have a computer on which to edit my documentary film. I just missed the add/drop period so my only option is to take an F or an incomplete in the course (and as a result have to finish my movie when I get a computer this summer). Right now I’m still trying to figure it all out so nothing is set in stone. The class requires a laptop and software (since the ship doesn’t even have the editing software on any of the computers) so I’m pretty outraged that they won’t even consider letting me withdraw. Aside from the computer issue, I need to use the internet A LOT less. I’ve already spent $1,000 on internet (just from updating my blog and checking e-mails…you really can’t imagine how slow it is) so on top of paying off internet minutes and trips this summer, I will be paying off a $1,500 computer. Sooo don’t think I’ve forgotten about you if you don’t hear from me, I just don’t want to be in debt for the rest of my life. I’ve also been extremely overwhelmed with course work in general. Now that UVA has taken over, semester at sea is really really hard. Bucknell doesn’t seem to realize this and they still require that we take 5 classes instead of the standard four. I have an unbelievable amount of work to get done between now and Vietnam and Vietnam and China. As you can imagine, it was a very stressful week, especially when the doctor pulled an April fools joke on everyone and had the entire ship believing that there was a leprosy outbreak on board. I was literally crying. Then, I got an e-mail from the registrar at school saying that I didn’t get into the one English class I still need to complete my major. So now I have to spend more internet minutes trying to find another class. I went so far as to buy a $20 calling card the other day so I could cry and complain to dad the way I usually do in a crisis and lo and behold, it didn’t work- icing on the cake. However, in retrospect none of this matters because I’m living on a ship traveling around the world AND…



I GOT MY INTERNSHIP I GOT MY INTERNSHIP I GOT MY INTERNSHIP!!!!!!!

So even though things seem to suck really bad right now…I get to live and work in NYC this summer (that’s right Nicole, I’m moving in)! So at least now I have a means of paying off my debt. I got the e-mail from Fleishman-Hillard today and I can’t even tell you what a relief it was. Finally something went right this week because…
I GOT MY INTERNSHIP! Also…I’ll try and post a Malaysia update soon. I can’t afford to do pictures because it takes about 20 minutes for them to load so my wonderful words of wisdom will just have to do. But I can say that the Cameron Highlands were UNBELIEVEABLE- one of the most beautiful places on earth is located in Malaysia on a mountain 6,500 ft. above sea level.